Emory Bored with Journalism Dept.?

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The journalism program at Atlanta-based Emory University is winding down and will disappear in two years, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Robin Forman announced last week.

The journalism department, one of four programs being phased out, according to reports in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Knightcenter@utexas.edu Web site, not surprisingly, is not reacting well to being consigned to extinction by the university.  Former Journal-Constitution Managing Editor Hank Klibanoff, who heads the school's journalism program, voiced disappointment, claiming that discontinuing the journalism department translates into a less-informed public and fewer critical thinkers.

With Emory joining other schools such as the University of Colorado in eliminating journalism as a major (see "TUOL" posts 2/22/11 & 8/26/10), journalism advocates are seeking salvation in a "teaching hospital" approach to journalism education, emphasizing professional training over an academic mindset and focusing on digital communication.

Fair Use Derails Publishers' Copyright Suit Against University

Georgia State University Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)In what may be a precedent-setting 350-page ruling in Cambridge University Press et al. v. Patton et al. (Case No. 1:2008-cv-01425), Senior United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia Judge Orinda Evans ruled that Georgia State University was protected by the fair use doctrine against copyright infringement claims by SAGE Publications, Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.

As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Associated Press and elsewhere, Judge Evans's decision, which some legal experts believe may be the first of its kind in the nation, rejected the plaintiffs' allegations that GSU sanctioned copyright infringement by permitting professors to download and copy excerpts from course materials. Judge Evans ruled in favor of GSU on 69 counts of copyright infringement, but found against the defendant on five counts in which she determined publishers suffered monetary damages where students had unrestricted access to complete textbook chapters; specifically, five excerpts from four different texts.

The plaintiffs filed sued in April 2008. In her ruling, Judge Evans concluded reproducing one chapter in a book that contained more than 10 chapters was permissible without constituting copyright infringement. Under the fair use doctrine [17 U.S.C. sec. 107], a copyright holder need not consent to publication of his or her material depending on the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of the portion of the work used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole and the effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Judge Evans wrote her decision would "further the spread of knowledge."

Ga. App. Ct. Sides with Atlanta Journal-Constitution in Jewell Libel Case

Image via WikipediaIn G. Watson Bryant Jr., Executor of the Estate of Richard Jewell v. Cox Enterprises, Inc. d/b/a The Atlanta Journal-Constitution et al. (Case No. A11A0510), the Court of Appeals of Georgia last month upheld the trial court's finding that The Atlanta Journal-Constitution did not defame the late Richard Jewell when it reported that anonymous law enforcement officials considered the security guard a suspect in the 1996 bombing of Centennial Olympic Park.

The heirs of Jewell are expected to appeal the ruling.  Jewell, who died in 2007, initially was considered a hero when he notified the Georgia Bureau of Investigation about an unattended knapsack left under a park bench that contained a pipe bomb. Subsequently, the Journal-Constitution wrote articles in which it said unnamed authorities were preliminarily investigating Jewell as a possible suspect in the Centennial Olympic Park bombing that killed two and injured 100. Jewell was exonerated in 1996 and Eric Rudolph was later convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the attack.

Jewell sued the Cox Enterprises-owned Atlanta daily in 1997 for defamation, claiming his reputation, career and life were devastated by the paper repeatedly identifying him as "the man who investigators believe may have planted the pipe bomb." In its 29-page decision, the Georgia appellate court said the
defendant's articles were substantially true, and though sympathetic to the ordeal Jewell endured, wrote: "A reasonable reader would have understood the information to be preliminary in nature and published during the very early stages of the ongoing investigation." Georgia courts deemed Jewell a limited-purpose public figure who had to satisfy the higher burden of proof of actual malice to prevail in his defamation claim.

Losing Pol's Libel Case Takes a "Cosmo" Turn

Image via WikipediaTwice-unsuccessful Georgia gubernatorial candidate Ray McBerry's defamation suit against a couple of  political bloggers and a woman who claims McBerry had an inappropriate relationship with her teenage daughter, has taken a decidedly unpleasant turn, according to reports in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Huffington Post.

In  Ray McBerry v. Thomas Knighton, Jeff Sexton & Linda Kidd Pittman (Case No. 10-cv-4279-AM), filed in Henry County Superior Court in November 2010, McBerry sued for defamation, alleging in his Complaint that during the recent gubernatorial campaign, Pittman referred to him as a "child molester" on a Facebook page.  In her Answer, Pittman said her statements of opinion were non-defamatory protected speech under the First Amendment, and that the facts about which she opined were previously published, and therefore, did not cause further damage to McBerry's reputation, which she contends already is "bad."

The head-turning direction in which the case has gone stems from interrogatories sent by Pittman's attorney to McBerry that seek information, including a list of  every partner with whom he has had a "physically intimate, romantic or sexual relationship[s]."  Juicy stuff for a news media ever on the prowl for lurid doings involving public officials. Less sensational, but more intriguing, is the naming of the bloggers as defendants, with its First Amendment Internet political speech ramifications.

McBerry, a former high school teacher, was sanctioned by the state licensing board in 2003 for his conduct during an investigation after he admitted  giving a cell phone to a then-16-year-old female that allowed her to communicate with him without her parents' knowledge.